Hello @warmer the cynic in me wants to agree with the other members that have posted here, and to some degree I do. I agree that they are painful, even with the local, and I agree that we grit our teeth and do it anyway because “it has to be done”.
I have been watching this conversation to see what other people thought before jumping in. I had more than 15 samples (lost count at 15) with a needle core that was quite painful, and stayed painful until that tumor was removed from my chest wall a month later. I do believe location was at least partly to blame.
I had a few more biopsies over the years and they were all mildly painful or just uncomfortable. But they were not just punched through with the core pen. Even the melanoma biopsy where they took out a giant core off of my arm wasn’t that painful.
Again the cynic in me could come up with some explanations for it, but mostly I think it is just that until the person doing it endures it, they don’t realize that they need to find a better way. I believe this is true for most rural health systems at least, I believe this only from my personal experiences with myself and my husband. I had local care, he had mostly Mayo care and there was a vast difference. I know this doesn’t help but at least you can know, we are all kindred spirits.
How are you doing now that you are in treatment?